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Fasces

A Fasces wrapped in a bundle of rods.

Fasces are ceremonial axes used during the Roman Empire to represent high social status when traveling, the more fasces a person had, the higher their social status. In the case of the emperors of Triumvirate Holdings, they are the source of their immortality.

The Trials of Apollo[]

The Tyrant's Tomb[]

Commodus and Caligula use their own fasces to keep Harpocrates imprisoned at Sutro Tower. They are destroyed by Meg and Reyna to free the silent god. By doing so, the emperors were severely weakened to the point where Apollo and Frank Zhang were later able to kill them.

The Tower of Nero[]

As a result of the three emperors spending millennia together and destroying the fasces of Commodus and Caligula, the fasces of Nero absorbed the power of the other two and is now three times as strong.

After arriving in New York, Apollo and Meg are approached by Luguselwa with a plan to defeat Nero which requires them to allow themselves to be captured so that she can release them. During their six months away, Rachel Elizabeth Dare has gotten her hands on the blueprints for Nero's Tower and determined that destroying Nero's fasces is the key to defeating him, something that Apollo and Meg already know from their fights with Caligula and Commodus. Based on the blueprints, Rachel has determined the fasces to be in a vault on the most secure level of the tower which also contains the holding cells, explaining Luguselwa's plan to have them surrender so that she can release Apollo and Meg from the holding cells. Apollo is later warned in a dream by Jason Grace that the fasces is guarded by a creature connected to Mithras and sees that it is located in a vault mounted on a pedestal of Stygian Iron with the guardian being a leontocephaline. Apollo realizes that Nero has set it up so that the price of defeating him will be Apollo giving up his immortality, something that Nero believes that Apollo will never be willing to give up.

During the Battle of Nero's Tower, Luguselwa gets the fasces by offering up her own immortality and brings it to the throne room. Nero begs them not to destroy the fasces before going over and taking it by force. As he and Apollo fight over it, the axe breaks, releasing a massive firestorm of the fasces stored power that Apollo is immune to while Nero is fatally burned. Nero disintegrates shortly thereafter.

Trivia[]

  • Fascism, a form of far-right wing authoritarian dictatorship, is derived from the name of the axes.
Items
Personal Weapons: Riptide | Annabeth's Knife | Backbiter | Master Bolt | Poseidon's Trident | Nico's Sword | Thalia's Spear | Aegis | Ares' Sword | Ares' Shield | Caduceus | Apollo's Golden Bow | Silver Bow | Artemis' Knives | Hades' Sword | Hades' Staff | Kronos' Scythe | Ivlivs | Katoptris | Hazel's Spatha | Frank's Spear | Reyna's Spear | Juno's Gladius | Annabeth's Sword | Sumarbrander | Gungnir | Gjallar | Mjolnir | Gríðarvölr | Khopesh | Mallory's Serrated Knives | Meg's Twin Imperial Gold siccae blades | Thyrsus | Hecate's Torches | Minotaur's Axe | Leroy's Sword | Tyson's Javelin | Alex's Garrote Wire | Piper's Sword
Magical Items: Annabeth's Yankees Cap | Helm of Darkness | Pandora's Pithos | Winged Shoes | Golden Fleece | Flying Chariot | Golden Apple | Apples of Immortality | Greek Fire | Hermes' Multivitamins | Nectar and Ambrosia | Stygian Ice Whistle | Keys of Hades | Leo's Magical Toolbelt | Serapis' Staff | Magic 8 Ball | Arrow of Dodona | Pig Ball | Mechanical Spider | Angel Statues | Athena Parthenos | Chiron's Wheelchair | Diocletian's Scepter | Flaming Dodgeball | Gleipnir | Poseidon's Pearls | Queen Hippolyta's Belt | Mistletoe Arrow | Frank's Stick | Expand-o-Duck | Caligula's Caligae | Ran's Net | Rune Stones | Nábrók | Pomegranate
Spoils of War: Minotaur's Horn | Medusa's Head | Kampê's Scimitars | Nemean Lion's Pelt | Gorgon Blood | Cornucopia | Lydian Drakon Hide | Phineas' Robe and Slippers | Triptolemus's Almanac | Odysseus' Astrolabe
Items: Camp Necklace | Chameleon Armor | Daedalus' Laptop | Golden drachma | Denarius | Red Gold | Mark of Athena | Thalia's Shield | Video Shield | Wristwatch Shield | Golden Mango | Sibylline Books | Letter of Recommendation
Ships Amos' Boat | Argo II | CSS Birmingham | Egyptian Queen | Julia Drusilla Yachts | Pax | Queen Anne's Revenge | Reed Boat | Naglfar | Gorgyra's Canoe
Blessed Metals: Adamantine | Celestial Bronze | Imperial Gold | Stygian Iron | Bone Steel
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